Objective: The objective was to characterize the potential change in the percentage of lots of beef calves with Brahman influence among calves originating from various regions of the United States marketed through summer video auctions from 1995 through 2015.
Study Description: Information describing factors about lots sold through a livestock video auction service (Superior Livestock Auction, Fort Worth, TX) was obtained from the auction service in an electronic format. These data were collected for all lots of beef calves that were offered in 171 summer sales from 1995 through 2014. There were 80,574 lots (9,685,247 total calves) used in the analyses.
Results: There was a decrease (P<0.0001) in percentage of lots with Brahman influence in the United States during the 21 years. Percentage of lots with Brahman influence decreased (P<0.0001) in four regions: West Coast, Rocky Mountain/North Central, South Central, and Texas. There was no change (P=0.30, P=0.07, respectively) in percentage of lots with Brahman influence originating from the Coastal (AL, FL, GA, LA, MS, and SC) and Sub-Coastal (AR, KY, NC, TN, VA, and WV) regions.
The Bottom Line: The percentage of lots of beef calves with Brahman influence appears to be decreasing in the United States. It remained unchanged in the Coastal and Sub-Coastal regions where Brahman influenced calves are adapted to warmer, more humid climates.
View full research report by authors E.D. McCabe, M.E. King, K.E. Fike, K.L. Hill, G.M. Rogers, and K.G. Odde at http://newprairiepress.org/kaesrr.
